We project Ely as a 5th starter type, but if you listen to Phil Rogers he is worth more than Pierre by himself. Ely had a great season, playing in the Southern League All-Star Game, earning a place on the league’s post-season all-star team and recently being named to our All-FutureSox team. Sure, performance isn’t everything in the minors and Ely doesn’t have top tier stuff as even Rogers admits. He has a great changeup, good control and his fastball and curve are decent pitches. He was a 3rd round pick in 2007 so clearly the Sox liked him then. This year was a bit of a breakout year for him, but his peripherals were slightly down from 2008 and he played in a pitchers’ park. …

“Three years ago we started talking about it and it came together a couple of days ago – I’m not kidding,” Williams said with a laugh. “We’ve asked about Juan over the years, so much so that I’ve probably irritated (Dodgers GM) Ned (Colletti) more than once or twice.”

“Ozzie and I have been speaking on that, and we spoke on it again [Tuesday],” Williams said of the DH spot. “Right now, what he would like to do is sit where we are right now because he likes flexibility with the DH position, whether it be a guy getting a break or keeping your bench players fresh. Guys like [Andruw] Jones, [Mark] Kotsay, [Omar] Vizquel, getting [Paul] Konerko off of his feet and getting into the DH spot … he likes the flexibility that comes with it.

“I’ve given him some names – this is a very critical last thing on our list. I certainly don’t want to do anything from my seat that conflicts with what my manager wants, so regardless if I think there may be a need for a bigger left-handed bat in the middle of the lineup, he’s the one in there and I fully support how he and his coaching staff see the situation fitting. That’s something we’ll continue to think about.”
Yeah, like June or July, come trade deadline time.

… “I don’t want people in Chicago now to say, we need a power-hitter,” Guillen said. “The last four years they have been on Kenny and myself, ‘we’re too slow.’ We’re excited with what we have. We have a more athletic ballclub and can do a lot of things. Kenny has done a miracle, I don’t know how he did it. It’s going to be fun. You’re going to see a different ballclub. And I was looking for a challenge, looking for the challenge to see how good I can be, moving the pieces the way I like to move them.”

What’s your thoughts on replay, Ozzie? “I like to see the umps do their jobs and I don’t like delays. But if there is replay it will save me money because every time I argue it costs me $500 or $1000.”

The White Sox acquired Juan Pierre from the Dodgers for two minor league pitchers, according to Yahoo’s Tim Brown. The Dodgers will take on roughly half of Pierre’s salary. The outfielder has $18.5MM remaining on his deal ($10MM next year and $8.5MM in 2011), so the Dodgers are taking on about $9MM. …

No, he couldn’t give away Holmberg. Holmberg was drafted in June [2009].

UPDATE: MLBTR now says the Sox will pay Pierre $3 million in 2010 and $5 million in 2011 meaning the Dodgers will pick up the remaining $10.5 million. Also, the two minor league pitchers will be Players To Be Named Later. Hmmm, $10.5 million is a lot. I wonder who the PTBNLs are.

December 14, 2009

According to ESPN.com, Matsui could sign for $6.5 million for a year. At one time, the White Sox had lukewarm interest if he could still play left field on bad knees, but decided to go in other directions during last week’s winter meetings in Indianapolis.

Guillen and general manager Ken Williams stressed recently how these young reserves should not count themselves out. Williams specifically addressed Nix’s situation when asked Thursday if he would have a talk with Nix before the holiday party.

“Jayson has a role on this team,” Williams said. “So, I absolutely will.” …

Carrasco, who made $440,000 last season, was offered a $160,000 raise. That wasn’t what he or his agent had in mind, and the gulf became apparent during a lunch Wednesday at the winter meetings involving Carrasco’s agent and a Sox official.

Q.During football games, I’ve noticed that the center often will point up field before he snaps the ball. Could it be he wants to make sure the rest of the team knows which way to go? (Ed Anderson; Kirkland, Wash.)

Players available in each year’s Draft class hail from the United States, Canada or Puerto Rico. If the powers that be have their way, however, that could all change as early as 2012.

Commissioner Bud Selig has stated on more than one occasion his support for both a hard slotting system for Draft bonuses and a Draft that would be open to amateur players from every nation.

“There’s no question in my mind, in 2011, certainly a [hard] slotting system and a worldwide Draft are things we will be very aggressive in talking about,” Selig said soon after this past Draft’s signing deadline in August.

Is such an international Draft at all tenable? Is it realistic to imagine that there’s a way to bring all of the baseball-playing nations under one Draft umbrella? …

The league typically cites a litany of problems when arguing in favor of the international draft, including concerns of age fraud, exploitation of the players by buscones, rampant corruption and overall cost. I’ve written at length on these issues before, and the chief thing to take away from it is that when it comes to talking about an international draft, the league tries to conflate all of these issues into one giant problem that is inherent in international free agency when, in fact, they are many separate issues, most of which could be solved without the institution of an international draft. …

As you may have noticed, there’s now an extra column in the “Advanced” section for batting stats called “wRC+”. You can think of this stat as a wOBA based version of OPS+. It’s park and league adjusted and it’s on a very similar scale as OPS+. The difference is that it uses wRC, which is based on wOBA. …

December 12, 2009

“You want to be in a place where you are wanted and needed,” Carrasco said. “The White Sox probably still wanted me, but didn’t need me. I love playing the game, but you’ve got to be smart, and there’s just not a lot of longevity in middle relief. It’s about closing and starting and setting up. I feel I can really help a team, and it will be an interesting learning experience seeing what teams think of me.”

… “There are other things I feel I can do, not just being a long man,” Carrasco said. “But I praise the White Sox for giving me an opportunity. One of the reasons I’m going to miss Chicago is the passion and knowledge of the White Sox fans,” said Carrasco, when asked if he had heard of fans’ disappointment over his departure. “It holds a special place in my heart that they wanted me back.”

The White Sox informed the agent for D.J. Carrasco that they will not tender him a contract by Saturday’s 11 p.m., thus making him a free agent.

… The two sides were several hundred thousand dollars apart after a meeting Wednesday in Indianapolis, and talks Saturday didn’t advance any further. Carrasco earned $440,000 last season, and this was his first winter as an arbitration eligible player.